Gadra Advice and Community Work Report

Fri, 22 June 2007

(Copyright GreaterGood South Africa Trust 2007; Photographer: Simone Scholtz)

Gadra Advice and Community Work: Establishing an income-generating beekeeping project for Gadra's blind beneficiaries

This project is providing training and equipment so that an organised group of six disadvantaged blind people from the Grahamstown area can become income-generating beekeepers. Gadra has established a public-private partnership with local business, Makana Meadery, who provide the beekeeping training as well as a market for the honey.

The project has been a great success so far. The empowerment of the individuals is visible and there is an atmosphere of hope and excitement at GADRA.

The project received an instalment of R28,000 from SASIX on 14 February 2007. The full cost of the project is R62,000, with R43,000 still outstanding.

Project activities to date

The major project activities to date are as follows:

• The container has been purchased and put in place.
• The training courses have been completed.
• Six bee hives are in place – with bees.
• The protective clothes have been sewn.
• The smoke cans have been made.

The bee-keeping training course is completed and we now have six hives full of bees in place. We purchased four hives which were already established and should harvest honey in the next two months from them, but the other hives are from swarm collections and so we will have to wait a while before they start to produce and we can start to supply Makana Meadery.

Project expenditure

Item	Proposed cost	Number	Planned cost	Actual cost
Container	R12, 000	X 1	R12, 000	R11, 850
Training Course	R600 per person	X 6	R3, 600	R3, 600
Bee Hives	R500 each	X 6	R3, 000	R3,000
Protective clothes	R500 each	X 6	R3, 000	R3,000
Smoke cans	R100 each	X 6	R600	R600
Administration fees	@ 24%	N/A	0	R5, 328
Total	0	N/A	0	R27, 528

New Items	Overspent
Path to container, Cement, sand, rocks	R1,300
Labour	R1, 000
Paint for container	R684
Drilling openings	R500
Air vent for top	R600
Shelving for future hives	R800
Total	R4, 884

Beneficiaries of the project

1. The six blind people have been trained and feel very proud that they could learn such a skill. This has boosted their self-esteem and given them the confidence to participate in other activities.
2. There are now three seamstresses permanently employed making bee-keeping suits. They are paid per suit made and have made over 75 suits since the project started. All three were previously unemployed and were receiving food parcels from Gadra, and they are now independent.
3. Two disabled people and one able-bodied person are employed making the smoker cans for the bee-keeping and have made 57 smokers so far. They are learning other wood-making and leather skills as a by-product and are now earning a regular income.
4. Paper-making was introduced to provide some packaging for the Mead (Makana Meadery uses honey to make the alcoholic drink ‘iqhilika’). Two disabled women are very happy to be occupied making such pretty creations and have already sold some. They are now making cards.
5. Mpumelelo Poro, previously our cleaner, has been promoted to project co-ordinator. She is responsible for making sure each project has all the materials, keeps records of each item made and reports directly to the project co-ordinator or administrator.
6. We now have a bee removal service and we collect swarms and remove bees from people’s properties on request.

Challenges addressed

It was more difficult than we thought it would be to get the container in place and we did break the fence which then had to be repaired. We decided to make a concrete path suitable for wheelchair use in case sometime in the future we have physically disabled people wanting to learn about bee-keeping. This increased the cost of the path.

Before putting in the hives we decided we had to plan for the whole container being full of hives rather than just the initial 6-10. This is because we couldn’t imagine having to put up more shelves and drill holes once the bees were already there. Although in theory we could house up to 100 bee hives we will restrict it to 30.

We will have to plan a winter flowering garden so that there will be nectar for the bees all year round, and we have arranged for one of the orphaned schoolchildren we work with to plant and maintain this.

We are assured by the professionals that there will be no problem with people and bees – though some people still express concern. We will have to wait and see. We will start off with only a few hives and then if there is no problem we will progress gradually to having 30.

Monitoring and evaluation

We are already assessing the project as successful, since the bee-keeping training course is completed and we now have six hives full of bees in place. We purchased four hives which were already established and should harvest honey in the next two months from them, but the other hives are from swarm collections and so we will have to wait a while before they start to produce.

In addition, a small profit is being made on the making of bee-suits and this will cover the cost of our sewing machines maintenance, electricity etc. The seamstresses are earning a steady income, and the making of the bellows is providing an income for two people. Although not making money yet the two ladies doing paper-making are enjoying having a creative occupation. We have started to make cards which a local tourist shop has agreed to sell for us.

Overall we have achieved the following:

• Six blind people are very empowered by their training and are receiving recognition as people with a skill.
• Three people are employed with an income of R800-R1,000 per month as seamstresses.
• Two disabled people are learning the skill of making bellows and some woodwork, and are earning supplementary income to their grant about R500 per month.
• Two disabled ladies are making paper – with the prospect of earning more money in future.
• The cleaner has been promoted to project co-ordinator.
• Casual labourers who were unemployed have done piecework and we will be able to recommend their work to others in future.
• The AIDS orphan (a 16-year-old student) will have a small regular income as gardener which will supplement the food parcels we help him and his siblings with.

Conclusions

We wanted to create empowerment and employment and we have been able to do that. GADRA at the moment is (excuse the pun) a ‘hive’ of activity. A sense of hope has replaced the despondency that existed in the environment of such high unemployment. As the project grows we expect to see a greater impact on the families of the people who are involved.

The project is likely to attract many interested parties, even schools and we hope that it will be a pilot project that can be used in other areas with other blind people. We see it as a teaching site which will expand further and hopefully be able to attract further funding.